REDWOOD CITY – Killing Scott Peterson won’t bring back his slain wife, Laci, and the fetus she carried, a boy the couple planned to name Conner, a witness whose child also is named Conner told jurors today.

Asked how a death sentence for the former fertilizer salesman would affect her life, Shelly Reiman broke down in tears.
“It’s just going to be an extremely sad day if that’s what happens. It’s not going to bring back Laci and it’s not going to bring back Conner. All it’s going to do is add another tragedy,” said Reiman, who first met Scott and Laci Peterson while the couple attended college in San Luis Obispo.

“The Scott I knew is a very gracious, caring person,” Reiman told jurors, adding the she and her husband named their child Conner.

She recalled her husband telling her in 2002 how excited Scott Peterson was to be a father.

Prosecutor Dave Harris then questioned just how well Reiman knew Peterson.

“Did the Scott that you know ever talk to you about (his mistress) Amber Frey?” Harris asked.
“No,” Reiman said.

“Did he ever tell you he was telling Amber that he didn’t want to have children?” Harris prodded.
“No,” she replied.

Today was expected to be the final day of testimony in the penalty phase of the trial, with Peterson’s mother, Jackie Peterson, wrapping up the defense case. The jury was expected to begin deliberating Thursday afternoon.

Tuesday, Susan Medina, who lived across the street from Laci and Scott’s Modesto house, cried uncontrollably as she asked the jury to choose life in prison, because she has seen firsthand the tragic consequences that execution takes on everyone, including the victim’s family.

Medina said her grandfather was kidnapped and murdered in the Philippines, and that the killers were eventually caught and executed.

“My father witnessed somebody put in the electric chair … he was never the same,” she said through sobs.

Medina left the stand, and as she passed Laci’s mother, Sharon Rocha, she bent over and said something to her. Rocha, sitting in the first row near the jury, sobbed throughout Tuesday’s testimony. Laci’s brother Brent and half-sister Amy, were also in court.

Peterson’s mother and father, Jackie and Lee, watched the testimony quietly with saddened, pained expressions on their faces.

Peterson’s college years

In college, Peterson waited tables at Pacific Cafe in Morro Bay. Tuesday, the owner of the restaurant, Abbam Imani, said that out of the 100 waiters he has employed through the years, Peterson was in the top three.

“If you … lined up a hundred people and said that one of these people, that such a sad thing would happen to them, the last (people) I would have picked is Laci and Scott,” he said.

Grabbing a handkerchief from his back pocket, Imani wiped the tears from his eyes. “I can’t believe this thing happened,” he said.

Laci and Scott Peterson befriended one of their professors from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Professor Robert Thompson, Jr. testified that the young, seemingly happy couple took his agricultural economics course together, and that Scott was a model student.

Peterson had a 3.38 grade-point average, and made the dean’s list three times, Thompson said. “They were both friendly, outgoing, polite, fun people. There was lots of laughing and joking,” he told the jury.

Thompson said it is rare that he befriends students, but that the Petersons invited him to dinner at their home, and they became fast friends. The professor said he still corresponds with Peterson in jail and urged the jury to spare his life.
“I’d feel horrible (if he were executed). It would be like somebody just ripped out my heart,” he said, tearing up.
For the first time, prosecutor David Harris asked a defense witness a question. Harris asked the professor how Laci’s death had affected him.

Thompson said he was still grieving for for Laci, but added that he does not believe Scott is responsible for her death.
“I had my doubts about, could Scott do such a thing. In eight years of experience with this fine young man, I have to go with what I know and not what the media says,” he said.

– Jason Dearen also contributed to this report. He can be reached at (650) 306-2425 or by e-mail at jdearen@sanmateocountytimes.com.

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